Government agencies and securities exchanges require that certain information be made available to an investor before a security is sold, and that certain information be delivered to an investor with the confirmation of any transaction. This delivery of this information has historically taken place in person, or via document delivery services, such as the U.S. Mail, Federal Express, or United Parcel Service. Recently, government agencies and securities exchanges began allowing securities issuers and intermediaries to comply with information delivery requirements by delivering the information in an electronic format, for example by transmitting the information from one computer to another over a computer network.
Securities information is published in various electronic databases including the Securities and Exchange Commission's ("SEC") EDGAR database. EDGAR, the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, performs automated collection, validation, indexing, acceptance, and forwarding of submissions by companies and others that are required by law to file forms with the SEC. The primary purpose of EDGAR is to increase the efficiency and fairness of the securities market for the benefit of investors, corporations, and the economy by accelerating the receipt, acceptance, dissemination, and analysis of time-sensitive corporate information filed with the agency. EDGAR information is available on the internet at: http://www.sec.gov.
Although securities information is available from databases like EDGAR, the information is not readily available in a useful electronic format that enables compliance with government and securities exchange regulations, especially with regard to mutual funds and other non-corporate securities. EDGAR was designed in a manner that makes information regarding non-corporate securities difficult to find. EDGAR mutual fund information, for example, is listed as a submission of the corporate issuer, not the fund name that is marketed to the consumer, and may include information for more than one fund. EDGAR submissions also may include updates and amendments to earlier submitted information. It is quite possible for a single fund to have more than fifty amendments to its compliance information. An investor attempting to locate the complete compliance information for a fund directly from EDGAR would need to retrieve all applicable amendments. This is time-consuming, and it is difficult for the investor to know if all the amendments have actually been located and if the retrieved information about the fund is complete.